The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2023

in succeeding to maintain both a professional role and an organization with a union agenda,” says former AFSA President Bill Harrop. … Just as defense forces must be maintained, “diplomatic forces and embassies must also be built up.” … AFSA President Dan Geisler agrees. “If AFSA does not speak out, the Foreign Service is not heard. We are the only voice operating independently of the administration and the Congress,” he says. “We are the only voice that explains to the American people the vital importance of Foreign Service officers and specialists to our national security and domestic prosperity.” —Nancy A. Johnson, May 1999 Role Models: Lessons for Today from AFSA’s Past The reformers never lost their convic- tion that the Foreign Service, speaking as one through its union and professional association, could protect its institutional values and improve the work and lives of its members. … Ever since the days recounted here, the American Foreign Service Association has been the champion of the men and women of the Service. Who speaks for the Service, if not AFSA? Not the under secretary for management, nor even the Director General or Secretary of State. No one now would be as naive as I once was, content to rely on the department to shield the Foreign Service from abuse. Certainly the challenges we face today are as dire as those of the 1960s and 1970s. … AFSA attends to the Foreign Service as an institution. It acts as a custodian of Foreign Service virtues, among them intelligence, judgment, integrity, courage, patriotism and sacrifice. It is up to you, AFSA’s members, to ensure by your effort and vigilance that AFSA succeeds. n —Harry W. Kopp, May 2019 THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2023 39 ment employees and other government workers has not been changed. The White House had promised in December, after Secretary Shultz threatened to resign rather than take a test, that the machine would only be used in investigations of espionage incidents, which had been the practice all along. … The problems are twofold. First, they infringe on the liberties to which government employees, like all Americans, are entitled under the Constitution. There are already laws that punish persons who reveal classified information without infringing on their right to speak freely without prior government approval. … The second problem is that, as a bipartisan congressional study reported in 1983, there is no evidence that the polygraph is a reliable screening mechanism. There is abundant evidence, however, that its well-established error rate will place the careers of thousands of Foreign Service employees in jeopardy. … AFSA believes strongly that the government must take action to protect its secrets. This need not be done, however, in a manner that infringes on our rights as citizens. This also need not be done with a device that can only serve as an electronic Maginot Line. —Association Views, February 1986 From Striped-Pants Set to White-Collar Union AFSA has evolved with the Foreign Service, through isolationism the 1920s and 1930s, the eruption of World War II, vilification of the “old China hands” in the 1950s and the upheavals of the Viet- nam War years in the 1960s and 1970s. It has changed from an organization that, in its early days, welcomed top managers from State’s hierarchy as honorary officers to a union that protects the interests of the Foreign Service employees of the foreign affairs agencies. … AFSA’s agenda and priorities over the years have depended on who has served in its board slots and offices. A basic prob- lem for AFSA is that it represents different constituencies from all ranks and specialties within five foreign affairs agencies. These members often have different interests and, depending on the issue, one group of constituents can oppose another. Even with these inherent difficulties, AFSA has been a major player in influencing state’s personnel policies for the Foreign Service. “The development of AFSA has played an important role in the evolution of the Department’s personnel system over the past 30 years,” State Department management expert William Bacchus said. … “AFSA is unique in American history PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION MAY 2019 THESTATEOFSTATE PROFESSIONALDIPLOMATS LEADERSHIPANDLESSONS THE DIPLOMACY IMPERATIVE AQ&AWITH WILLIAMJ. BURNS 01_FSJ_05_19.indd 1 4/17/19 11:10AM